Trivia

If a player entered the Nether before 1.5 was released, then after the update was released, nether quartz ore would only spawn in newly generated chunks. This makes it difficult to find nether quartz in old worlds.

However, it is possible to re-generate the Nether in the world options of any world.

Although in real life striking a quartz crystal on a piece of steel is just as effective as flint on steel (for making sparks), there seems to be no plan to implement a quartz and steel striker, possibly because gravel (thus, flint) is more common than nether quartz, so it is cheaper to use flint anyway.